What can go wrong
How to check whether a car is stolen before you buy it in Australia
5 min read
A stolen car is seized and returned to its owner, and the buyer is rarely compensated. How stolen vehicles are recorded here, and what to check before paying.
What happens if you buy one
A stolen vehicle does not become yours because you paid for it in good faith. It remains the property of the person it was taken from. When it is identified, it is seized and returned to them.
Your recourse is against the seller, who by then is usually unreachable. This is why the check is worth doing even when the car and the seller both seem entirely ordinary. The ones that catch people out are the ones that do.
How stolen vehicles are recorded
When a vehicle is reported stolen to police in Australia, that report is recorded against the vehicle and shared between the states, so a car stolen in one state is flagged in another.
A history check queries those records by the vehicle's identifier. It is close to instant, and it is the single cheapest thing you can do before handing over a deposit.
Check the number on the car, not the number on the ad
The most common way this check gets defeated is not a gap in the records. It is checking the wrong vehicle.
A seller can advertise one VIN and show you a different car. Read the VIN off the vehicle in front of you (the compliance plate, the door frame, the windscreen) and satisfy yourself that those match each other before you check anything at all.
Signs worth pausing on: a plate that looks disturbed, a VIN that has been altered or is unreadable, paperwork in a name that is not the seller's, or a seller who will not meet at the address on the registration.
Common questions
- Do I get my money back if I unknowingly buy a stolen car?
- Not from the police or the original owner. The vehicle is returned to its owner and you would need to recover your money from the seller, which is often impossible in a private cash sale.
Check the car you are looking at
Enter an Australian plate or 17-character VIN. Run an instant free identity check, then add the official register searches this guide is about.
